Bind /named stopped working - getting SERVFAIL

[Chris Thompson]

On Dec 6 2007, Evert wrote:

>Maybe another newbie question, but...
>
>Where does bind get its root zones if I have no zone "." entry 
>in my config at all?

It doesn't need the root _zone_; all it needs is the names and addresses
of the root _nameservers_. (Think of it as the "delegation" information
for the root zone.)

It gets that from the "type hint" zone definition for "." if you provide 
one. Otherwise, since version 9.2.0 (I think), BIND will use a compiled-in
version of the root hints. Unless you're right up-to-the-minute with 
BIND versions, that will be slightly out of date (the l.root-servers.net
address changed recently) but that won't give you any trouble for years
to come. An up to date version can be obtained from

  ftp://ftp.internic.net/domain/named.root

Don't take the comment

;       (e.g. reference this file in the "cache  .  <file>"
;       configuration file of BIND domain name servers).

too literally! It seems they still believe in BIND 4.x there ... :-) 
Use

  zone "." { type hint; file "<file>"; };

-- 
Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 at cam.ac.uk